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We cross-correlate the COBE 6 DMR 2-year sky maps with spatial templates from long-wavelength radio surveys and the far-infrared COBE DIRBE maps. We place an upper limit on the spectral index of synchrotron radiation β synch < −2.9 between 408 MHz and 31.5 GHz. We obtain a statistically significant cross-correlation with the DIRBE maps whose dependence on the DMR frequencies indicates a superposition of dust and free-free emission. The high-latitude dust emission (|b| > 30 • ) is well fitted by a single dust component with temperature T = 18 +3 −7 K and emissivity ǫ ∝ (ν/ν 0 ) β with β = 1.9 +3.0 −0.5 . The free-free emission is spatially correlated with the dust on angular scales larger than the 7 • DMR beam, with rms variations 5.3 ± 1.8 µK at 53 GHz and angular power spectrum P ∝ ℓ −3 . If this correlation persists to smaller angular scales, free-free emission should not be a significant contaminant to measurements of the cosmic microwave anisotropy at degree angular scales for frequencies above 20 GHz.

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Quantum mechanical metric fluctuations during an early inflationary phase of the universe leave a characteristic imprint in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The amplitude of this signal depends on the energy scale at which inflation occurred. Detailed observations by a dedicated satellite mission (CMBPol) therefore provide information about energy scales as high as 10 15 GeV, twelve orders of magnitude greater than the highest energies accessible to particle accelerators, and probe the earliest moments in the history of the universe. This summary provides an overview of a set of studies exploring the scientific payoff of CMBPol in diverse areas of modern cosmology, such as the physics of inflation [1], gravitational lensing [2] and cosmic reionization [3], as well as foreground science [4] and removal [5]. † dodelson@fnal.gov

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